The Minimum Viable Product is a glimpse of success.
In all, an MVP is a bit of everything – not the complete package, but enough for it to work in any demonstration or limited release. This guide will help you take the Minimum Viable Product to its maximum potential. But first, you’ll need to know the approaches necessary to build your upcoming product. Then, you’ll be able to explore a more powerful version of your next idea with these simple steps.
What’s Meant by ‘Minimum’?
I’d like to give you a snapshot of the MVP building process. But first, you’ll need to know what it exactly entails. Think of this as a product in its most basic edition, with little more than the essential features. Expect only the fundamentals, with core functionalities that do little more than demonstrating your new product. Its task is only to test how a target audience would respond.
What About MVP Development?
Don’t get confused. An MVP is not a demo or a sample of a single stage. It’s not a product that won’t go past the ‘training menu’ or video game remaining at ‘mission 1’. Instead, this is a cross-section of the entire process.
The Minimum Viable Product Development Approach means you’ll be doing, and showing, a little of everything.’ It’s a very involving process, which will demand some feedback on your part. Based on this feedback, you’ll make iterations that’ll fix bugs and open a window towards new features. How will you do that? Through early adopters’ suggestions, of course!
What Approach Should You Take?
Successful MVP development is made up of two equal parts. The first is Business and Marketing, whereas the second is Proof of Concept.
The first part is essential to building a concise business case whilst also backing it up with the right ideas. This will mean performing research, developing an action plan, identifying the best marketing principles, and selecting the best frameworks. You’ll also need to determine the best advertising platforms to advance your product.
Proof of Concept, on the other hand, is a more technical aspect. By conceiving an MVP, you will establish essential programming functions and design the minimum feature set. Getting these right ensures your app maintains its unique selling point.
Your 6 Steps to Success
From the thought process to building and validating – there are six stages to building an MVP. I’d like to take you through them now.
Step 1 – Begin with Market Research
Navigate your environment, and get in touch with your users’ needs. Take care to conduct detailed surveys too. Because the more information you gather, the greater your chances of success! Be sure to remember competitors, and look into ways of making your product idea stand out.
Step 2 – Ideation and Adding Value
You should always be clear about the essential estimations of your product. Take note of the MVP by introducing value to your users first, outlining them, and building your MVP accordingly. Next, consider what value your product offers to its users and what kinds of benefits it presents. The most important question here is ‘why should they buy your product?’
Step 3 – Mapping Our Your User Flow
The design journey is an important MVP stage – be sure to map it out with convenience in mind. For that, you’ll need to view the app from the users’ perspective. Look into purchasing and delivery aspects and take user flow into account too! Above all, keep user satisfaction at the top of your mind.
Get in touch with the user flow, as well, by defining the process stages. Here, you’ll need to explain the necessary steps to reach your final objective. Your focus, in this case, should be basic tasks – as opposed to sourcing, product buying, managing, and receiving orders.
These represent your end users’ goals when using your product. Once you determine these exact procedures, it’ll be time to define stage features.
Step 4: Prioritise MVP Features
You’ll need to list your desired attributes at this stage to incorporate into your product before building the MVP. Then, once you complete the building process, take care to assign priorities within this list by answering the following questions: what do my users want? Am I offering them something beneficial?
Once priorities are assigned, the next stage would be categorising all the remaining MVP features based on their degree of priority. You’ll then need to define the scope of each of your features in line with the vision for the first version of the product. Consider building a prototype in this case, too.
Step 5: Launch MVP
Once you’ve determined the right features and understand your market demands, you’re ready to create your MVP. Be sure to keep in mind that the MVP is not of lower quality than the final product.
Unlike a demo or prototype – this product still needs to fulfil your customer’s needs. It should be easy to operate, be engaging, and above all – be suitable for your users to achieve their objectives.
Step 6: Build, Measure, Learn
Everything within the building phase is itself a process. First, you must define and design the scope of your work. Following this, you must move the product into its stage, after which you’ll be expected to carry out product testing. Quality assurance engineers, who maintain product quality, are ideal for carrying out this initial test.
Be sure to review everything thoroughly after completing the MVP development process. One such item most certainly requiring careful attention is the client reaction. By taking advantage of their feedback, you are in a position to determine the acceptability and competitiveness of your product as it enters the market.
Good Luck – and Godspeed
It’s worth mentioning that reliance on existing solutions and SaaS products is an excellent strategy to speed up development. ‘Buying over building’ is, in fact, something essential to prototyping. Even paid services can provide more than required and be resource-heavy for your organisation.
As a rule of thumb, when unsure about the product’s direction, build your MVP from available pieces. Your task now is to select a stack and get going with the MVP development. Be sure to choose a framework, and consult our articles for more information.
Your MVP is not supposed to be perfect; simply follow the described steps to build the proper creation. It all requires an approach that empowers you to discover helpful information with the assistance of a working product – without overspending valuable time and resources.
Remember, all you need is to plan your business hypothesis, identify the main MVP features, know your target audience, and partner with the right MVP Development company.
